diff --git a/telethon/client/telegrambaseclient.py b/telethon/client/telegrambaseclient.py
index 7f154a97..c234f357 100644
--- a/telethon/client/telegrambaseclient.py
+++ b/telethon/client/telegrambaseclient.py
@@ -523,6 +523,12 @@ class TelegramBaseClient(abc.ABC):
                 except OSError:
                     print('Failed to connect')
         """
+        # Workaround specific to SQLiteSession, which sometimes need to persist info after init.
+        # Since .save() is now async we can't do that in init. Instead we do it in the first connect.
+        if isinstance(self.session, SQLiteSession) and not self.session._init_saved:
+            await self.session.save()
+            self.session._init_saved = True
+
         if not await self._sender.connect(self._connection(
             self.session.server_address,
             self.session.port,
diff --git a/telethon/sessions/sqlite.py b/telethon/sessions/sqlite.py
index 963dbc0e..35e8a5c9 100644
--- a/telethon/sessions/sqlite.py
+++ b/telethon/sessions/sqlite.py
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ class SQLiteSession(MemorySession):
         super().__init__()
         self.filename = ':memory:'
         self.save_entities = True
+        self._init_saved = True
 
         if session_id:
             self.filename = session_id
@@ -55,7 +56,7 @@ class SQLiteSession(MemorySession):
                 self._upgrade_database(old=version)
                 c.execute("delete from version")
                 c.execute("insert into version values (?)", (CURRENT_VERSION,))
-                self.save()
+                self._init_saved = False
 
             # These values will be saved
             c.execute('select * from sessions')
@@ -109,7 +110,7 @@ class SQLiteSession(MemorySession):
             c.execute("insert into version values (?)", (CURRENT_VERSION,))
             self._update_session_table()
             c.close()
-            self.save()
+            self._init_saved = False
 
     def clone(self, to_instance=None):
         cloned = super().clone(to_instance)